Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club was trying hard to win over new members to their program recently. To encourage people to try out Virgin Atlantic, they are actually offering status matches to people across various frequent flier program which overlap with the markets where Virgin Atlantic operates. Till a short while ago, Virgin put out a page as well with this information, however, they quietly removed the page now.

Virgin Atlantic has been offering Instant Gold or Silver status to the members of the following programs:

• American Airlines AAdvantage
• British Airways Executive Club
• Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Club
• Emirates Skywards
• Etihad Guest
• Jet Airways JetPrivilege
• South African Airways Voyager
• United Mileage Plus

Applying for Status Match

Here is how the status will match up depending on your existing status:

If your status match is approved, you get 12 months period to enjoy the status. The perks include lounge access, priority check-in and boarding, free seat selection, bonus miles and excess baggage. Perks also apply when you fly Delta. Silver Status gets you Premium Economy Check-in, seat selection 14 days in advance. Gold Status gets you Upper Class Check-in, Priority Boarding, Free Baggage, Free Seats Assignment, Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse access, spa at the Clubhouse.

In Australia, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Gold status will also get you lounge access in the Virgin Australia lounges, priority check-in, security screening and boarding as well.

To get the status, you need to be able to display the following to Virgin Atlantic, by sending an email to flying.club.support.uk@fly.virgin.com:

• A Flying Club membership & email
• A prior booking in Upper Class/Premium Economy if you are looking to match for Gold Status. Any Cabin if you are looking to match to Silver. You’ll need to send them the details such as booking reference, route and date.
• A copy of your membership card
• Statement from the other airline confirming your status and showing the routes you travel.

Once you earn the status (for free!) you’ll need to renew it with 400 tier points for Flying Club Silver or 1000 tier points for Flying Club Gold. These Tier Points can be earned by flying Virgin Atlantic, Delta, Singapore Airlines or other partners as well.

Using your status on Delta

When you use your Virgin Atlantic Status on Delta, you would have access to the following benefits:

• 100 percent more miles
• Extra Baggage
• Priority check-in
• Priority Baggage
• Priority Boarding
• Delta Skyclub access when travelling transatlantic to or from UK
• Access to Delta Comfort+ 72 hours prior for transatlantic routes and 24 hours prior for other routes.

Given that Virgin just unpublished the requirements but a friend got the approval just three days ago, it makes me believe the offer is still live. However, I’d advise you to first establish contact with Virgin Atlantic requesting a Status match along with the other information, before you book your ticket. At best, they’d come back asking for the ticket details, and you could book one and send them the details then.

Bottomline

This is a good opportunity for those who are looking to switch their loyalties or at least try out Virgin Atlantic. Me? I’m waiting for my friend to fly them shortly and I will take that call then.

Are you going to benefit from this promotion? It looks good for those who may be looking to be on the Delta/Virgin Atlantic network, a lot.